Why do skill points only come in even numbers?

[CRGreathouse]

It's because of cross-class skills costing 2 skill points per rank.

No. Since you can only put half ranks in, this still doesn't work.


I think it's for conceptualizing the levels of ability better - there are the unskilled, the semi-skilled, the skilled, and the very skilled. It would be harder to keep track of what every class gets otherwise.

Like the level-based system itself, it's supposed to be quantum.

Edit: I agree with FreeTheSlaves, above.

 

[Tarek]

No. Since you can only put half ranks in, this still doesn't work.

What do you mean, you can only put half-ranks in a cross class skill?

You can put whole ranks in, easily. Take a 2nd level Fighter... if he doesn't have any ranks in Tumble, he could put in 2 skill points and get one full rank of Tumble. If he had four free skill points, he could put them ALL into Tumble and get two ranks of the skill.

 

[JustKim]

What do you mean, you can only put half-ranks in a cross class skill?

You can put whole ranks in, easily. Take a 2nd level Fighter... if he doesn't have any ranks in Tumble, he could put in 2 skill points and get one full rank of Tumble. If he had four free skill points, he could put them ALL into Tumble and get two ranks of the skill.

He means that because the max ranks for cross-class skills are lower, at some point you can only put half a rank and 1 skill point into it. The only way to do so regularly is to multiclass.

 

[Ulrik]

It's because the "average" saves in other d20 books aren't based (afaIk) on any formula. Good saves are (1/2)X+2, poor a (1/3)X, where X is character level. A middle save would have to be between 1/2 or 1/3 to be useful, and there is not a lot of wiggle-room there. (3/8ths?)

The logical progression would be (5/12)X+1, as that is the average of the good and poor progression. This gives a nearly identical progression to the one listed by Nonlethal Force (the only difference is, I think, that 19th level gives +8 and not +9).

As for skill points, I agree that it's probably to better differentiate the skill levels between classes. There's a limit to how much granularity you need in a system, like the practical difference between a D100 and a D20.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Well, technically, all human PCs start off with an odd number of base skill points--the +1 skill point per level (+4 at 1st) essentially works out to human PCs starting with 3, 5, 7, or 9 skill points per level (barring Int stat mods).

IIRC, d20 Modern automatically takes this into account with their base & advanced classes--IIRC, the d20 Modern RAW have non-human PCs start off with 1 less skill point.

Though I did wonder why an odd number of base skill points were never used, I did wind up liking/prefering the even base skill points as a rule of thumb.

 

[Kaodi]

Actually, there are four base attack bonus progressions: Good, Average, Poor and Hulking Hurler.

 

[Aaron L]

Actually, I think it's because Skill Point particles only exist in nature as pairs, and Skill Points therefore have to be allocated 2 at a time. Trying to separate them results in quantum subspace detonations that could destroy large parts of the galaxy, and the designers of 3E just weren't prepared to go that far for the game.

Wussies.

I heard that Monte Cook had experimented for years trying to come up with a viable method for creating 3 part Skill Point particle groups, but the constant strain on his mind had started to cause a mental breakdown. His experiments were threatening to destroy Earth and he was pressured to stop by the CIA and NASA. That's why he's taking a break from D20.


Also, there were aliens involved somehow.

 

[Crothian]

Well, there is a bit of logic. This one boils down to the question: How many different levels of expertise can there be without the disparity being too great?

But the different ones don't have to be better or worse then what exists. Each of the 11 classes could have had their own unique ones. It would have made the classes be even more different and help the class system out. But even to answer your quetions of who would want +6 BAB at 20 th level? Casters!! With the amount of spells they have at 20th level they can easily be very effective without the need to even use spells that requre attack rolls.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

In d20 Modern, all the skill points are odd numbers.
Of course, they assume everyone is human.

 

[prosfilaes]

But the different ones don't have to be better or worse then what exists. Each of the 11 classes could have had their own unique ones. It would have made the classes be even more different and help the class system out.

Why would it help the class system out? Introducing features where two classes are the same for a large chunk of levels but not the rest, or where one class is better at some levels and worse at others, doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Even if you avoided that, the fact that you can look at two classes and say that one is objectively as good, better or much better than the other on BAB/Will save/Fort save/Reflex save/hit dice/skill points is a feature. Given that there's six different features there, even varying those only and keeping to the standard progressions, you can still have quite a few distinct classes. Given that on top of that, there's an endless progression of unquantifiable features, I don't see why adding complexity here is a win.